The end of July brings two new items to the website’s local history section: Edburton School I by F.A. Howe and Edburton School II by Tony Brooks. Term starts 3rd Sept.
This photo shows two teachers and nearly fifty pupils. The presence of the second teacher suggests that it was taken after 1883.
Detail of the plaque that can be seen above the door in the photo of the school as a whole. There is now a window in that location and the plaque has been relocated.
The original school bell
The school was closed in 1930, in accordance with the ‘Hadow plan’ which was being fostered by the Board (now the Ministry) of Education, by which schools were reorganised with an age break at eleven years, so that one school would consist of the younger children and a companion school or schools would receive them when they had passed their eleventh birthday. It was sometimes possible, when reorganising a group of schools in this way to eliminate a small or unsatisfactory school and so reduce public expenditure while offering better conditions for the children displaced. It was inevitable that Edburton school, with only 26 children, should be sacrificed. An agreement between the East and West Sussex County Councils, each of which was responsible for 13 of the children, sent the East Sussex juniors to Poynings and the seniors to Hurstpierpoint, while from the Edburton end of the parish the juniors went to Small Dole and Henfield and the seniors to Henfield.
F.A. Howe, 1958
[This essay comprises a transcription of the relevant material on pages 30-31 of Howe’s book. The photograph of the school at the top is also the same as that reproduced on page 101 of his book.]
Footnote:
*This was true when Howe was writing in 1958. But the house is now in West Sussex as is the rest of Edburton and Fulking.
References:
See also Edburton School II.
The original school was partly financed by Colonel George Wyndham, Lord of Truleigh Manor and administered by the Guardians of the Poor — the officials responsible for administration of laws relating to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Subsequently it became a Church School, mainly due to the efforts of the Reverend J.C.F. Tufnell, the Rector of St Andrew’s from 1840 until his death in 1866. The school was later to be recognised as such under the 1870 Education Act. In 1873 it was rebuilt by the Page family. At that time Eli Page farmed Perching and Richard Page farmed Aburton.
The commercial directories published over the relevant period tell us quite a bit about the history of the school. The 1851 edition of the Post Office Directory records the existence of a free school in Edburton and names Margaret Willett as the mistress. By the time of the 1855 edition she has married and the school is classified as a ‘National’ school. The 1858 Melville’s Directory has her as the mistress of “a free school, conducted on the National system”. The 1866 and 1878 Post Office Directories continue to mention the school but no mistress is identified perhaps because whoever it was lived outside the parish. The 1882 Kelly’s Directory, by contrast, is full of information:
National School, rebuilt in 1873, for 70 children; average attendance
54 & supported by school fees, a government grant & voluntary contributions;
Miss Parkes, mistress.
as is the 1887 edition of the same directory:
National school (mixed), rebuilt in 1873, enlarged 1883, for 90 children,
average attendance, 73; Miss Annie Smith, mistress.
The 1891 edition repeats this information but average attendance has fallen to 60 and Miss Emily Samson has replaced Miss Smith as the mistress. By 1899. average attendance has fallen to 32 (see the 1899 photo above) and Miss Hannah Humphreys has replaced Miss Samson as mistress. In 1905 the school is described as a ‘Public Elementary School’, average attendance has recovered to 65 and Miss Mabel Hudson has taken over from Miss Humphreys. Miss Hudson served as mistress at the school between 1902 and 1917. Average attendance had fallen to 48 by 1911. In 1922 Miss Averil Haigh was in post but the average attendance figure is omitted by Kelly’s. Miss Aldridge was appointed in 1925. She arrived at school every day on a motorbike, having ridden over from Steyning, which must have been quite a feat as the roads were little more than rough tracks and the reliability of motorcycles in those days was far from good. In her time one teacher took a class of 5-9 year olds and the other a class of 10-14 year olds. The pupils were all farm workers’ children who came from Aburton, Truleigh Manor, Truleigh Hill, Tottington Manor and Paythorne Farm. Other children from Fulking went to the school in Poynings.
Writing in 1957 about Edburton and Fulking as he had known them in the 1920s, Edgar Bishop wrote:
The one and only school — the Church School provided the education but unfortunately disagreement arose between the East and West Sussex Authorities over the administration, and the church lost the School. Incidentally the School had been given under a deed of trust by Lord Leconfield but unfortunately it lapsed and so bureaucracy stepped in and the school was closed.
The ‘Dainty Tearoom’ is on the left, the former school to the right with the door to the sweet shop at the rear.
The present owners purchased the house in 1980 and changed the name to ‘Old School House’. When they moved in, the two cloakrooms, whose doors flank the main building, still contained the coat-hangers that the children would have used half a century before. They rebuilt the house in 1982 but the character of the original was preserved. Over time, extensions to the rear have been added and a storage shed has been replaced with a garage, but great care has been taken to preserve the features of the original school building.
Tony Brooks
See also Edburton School I.
[Copyright © 2014, Anthony R. Brooks. Adapted from Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, pages 365-368, 370-373.]
Readers of the Yr Arolygiaeth Gynllunio report [PDF] cannot help but notice that the inspectors were much exercised by Tottington Mount. It is discussed or referenced on no fewer than 32 pages. By contrast, there isn’t a single reference to Truleigh Hill anywhere.
Tottington Mount lies between the Truleigh Hill Youth Hostel and Tottington Manor Farm. There is a public footpath opposite the farm that will take you up and across the mount. It is extremely steep for much of the route. Apart from the splendid view to the north, there’s not much to see. You will pass a long low earthwork as you near the summit. The mount itself just looks like canonical downland to an inexpert eye. As the map above indicates, the trench will bisect the mount.
Tottington Mount is a virgin patch of Downs that has never been ploughed. As a consequence, it hosts noteworthy plant species (page 57). The works area for the trench is to narrow from 30-40 metres to 20-30 metres as it cuts across the area (page 94). E.ON will be spending £330K on bog matting and other mitigation expenses on this small section of the trench (page 38). Some details of the mitigation plans, and the SDNPA’s scepticism about them, can be found on pages 57-58. The inspectors think that these mitigation efforts may well fail (page 41). The trench will skirt the Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) with a margin of about 50 yards at Tottington Mount. Disturbance to the chalk grassland species living within the SSSI will be ‘negligible’, apparently. Indeed, these species are set to benefit significantly from all the environmental monitoring that will be happening at Tottington Mount as part of the mitigation exercise (pages 52-53). However, Adonis Blue caterpillars may not share this upbeat view — they risk losing their lunch (pages 67-68).
The earthwork is a Bronze Age cross dyke and is listed as an ancient monument. The trench will go right through it (click the map above to see the detail of this), something that English Heritage refers to as a “substantial harmful effect” (page 178). The good news is that archaeologists will be funded to root around in the rubble — “appropriate archaeological supervision” (page 179, pages 398-399) — and English Heritage felt able to rule that “the harm is necessary in order to deliver substantial public benefits that outweigh the harm” (page 178). In turn, the inspectors concluded that there will be “be no loss of significance of any designated or undesignated heritage asset” (page 182) notwithstanding the “risk of adverse effects upon heritage assets, including the Tottington Mount Scheduled Ancient Monument” (page 227).
Tony Brooks
[Copyright © 2014, Anthony R. Brooks. Adapted from Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, pages 189 and 262.]
Work has now been completed on the conservation of a 200-year-old cart shed in Up Marden, West Sussex. The project, a pilot which could be rolled out for other ‘Heritage at Risk’ across the South Downs has been carried out in partnership between the SDNPA, Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Natural England and the landowner. The museum oversaw a programme of repair works through a new outreach programme giving museum students first-hand experience in masonry and timber frame conservation skills. This was the first conservation project that the museum had undertaken outside the museum grounds. The museum’s new outreach service could help the SDNPA to repair other historic buildings across the National Park. More here.
Anthony Brooks (2014) Ye Olde Worlde Shepherd & Dog 1800-2014, £3.00, collector’s item, just published and available now — but only at the Shepherd & Dog.
[This post consists of three items that partly document the life of Percy Lucas who was the village shopkeeper over the period 1920-1957.]
My predecessors started the shop situated next to the Shepherd & Dog as shoemakers in the year 1825-26. They took it as a cottage and dug the rock away and built the shop part. That was my great grandfather (Willett) and then my grandfather (Edward Willett) learned the same trade and carried it on there and his wife baked their own bread and started baking for a few others with hers. Presently it got to 20 top 25 loaves a day and a small bakehouse was added with wood oven and bread made from a ‘comp’ prepared with yeast (collected from Poynings Brewery) and potato water [1]. It was from that start that grocery etc. grew and my father (Obadiah Lucas) married a Miss Willett (Rhoda) and together built the business up. A Post Office was found to be necessary and my father was first postmaster. When the present premises became vacant about 50 years ago, they were acquired and we moved in bringing the Post Office with us and the present proprietor (P.W. Lucas) then about 12 months old. My grandfather (Mr. E. Willett) died in 1905 and my father carried on the business until 1920, when he left me to carry on. In 1939 my late son J.W. Lucas (killed in RAF) won a Gold Medal for Hovis bread; and we have also been awarded Diplomas for ‘Daren’ bread; made by our late baker Mr. Shepherd now of Small Dole and for National Bread made by yours sincerely P.W. Lucas.
[Notes on the history of his family by Percy Lucas, written for the Fulking Women’s Institute Village Scrapbook in 1947.]
Next to the Old Farmhouse is the village shop which seems to stock everything. Mr. P.W. Lucas, the proprietor, knows the wants of Fulking folk. He is a lifelong resident of the village, moving with his family to the present premises from the Old Bakehouse (just above the Shepherd and Dog) at the age of 12 months.
Perhaps best described as a grocer’s shop, his is also the bakery (he bakes half the village bread, the other half being sold in the form of sliced, wrapped loaves) and the Post Office, and he is the sub-postmaster.
It is good bread that he bakes, too. He and his family are renowned for it and have won awards in widespread competitions.
Being the only shop in the village the Post Office has considerable responsibility. From it goes a very wide round of deliveries of groceries and bread.
Mr. Lucas himself has many memories of the days before the motor-vehicle made transport as easy as it is today. In those days the nearest means of communication was the now disused railway station on the Dyke. Everything had to be hauled by horse and cart round the tortuous road by Saddlescombe.
[Rambling Reporter at Fulking, Southern Weekly News, 18th June 1954]
[Letter from the Head Postmaster at Brighton to Percy Lewis in response to his letter announcing his intention to retire in April 1957.]
Footnote: ‘Comp’ is an abbreviation for ‘compound’, a type of barm.